Artex ceilings, Light fittings & Asbestos

It seemed like trade persons were never much bothered about asbestos installed in properties in the 80's & 90's

when did they become more aware of asbestos issues?

Or did I just work for the wrong people?

These things take about half a generation to become common knowledge and in a pre-internet era, only the very keen folk would be keeping up to date with every last change in the advice since whenever they qualified.

The idea of the average workman working to the latest edition of every rule book is actually quite modern. 

From the 1970s onwards the data about how bad it could be really became very obvious to those looking at the latest figures, but it took time to change - hence artex formula changing in the mid 80s, along with  brake pads and a host of other things. The law limited blue asbestos first, then brown then eventually all of it a nice timeline summary here  .

Of course most folk would only loosely be following this, as almost no-one reads legislation the day it  is made, and old stocks of materials would be used up first and so there is a good chance of a nasty surprise in any  buildings older than about 20 years.

Mike.

Early last year my neighbour and I had our cement- asbestos garage roof replaced.  We had a roofer who would remove and replace the roof but he would not dispose of the sheets so we engaged a separate licensed asbestos removal company to dispose of the material.  In the event two men turned up in a long wheelbase Transit, loaded the sheets into the back and issued the necessary certificate (I checked it was a genuine legitimate certificate as best I could) and drove off.  A week later a lab analysis arrived by post.  No PPE, and so far as I could see, no special measures in the van.

davidwalker2 said:

No PPE, and so far as I could see, no special measures in the van.

No need for it if the sheets were intact!

Not really true - they should have bagged it or sheeted and taped it  - sheets rub against one another or could get scuffed being loaded.  Actually you do not need to be an approved contractor to handle the cement sheets but you are supposed to be taking all reasonable precautions to prevent breakage and to contain any dust that is created.

We have a tip near us that will take it to order, but will only accept sealed "parcels".

Mike.

I do asbestos awareness training annually with ukata, as their certificate expires yearly. Longer certificates can be gained with other bodies but I prefer doing it annually as it's a good reminder of the hidden dangers of asbestos, which is easy to forgot/ignore with longer duration certificates.

There's no way of telling whether something contains asbestos, unless it's analysed. It's not difficult to do. You can get five or six items tested for around £50. So get the responsible person / duty holder / home owner / etc to get things tested before any work starts. The problem is though they're disturbing the material by breaking bits off to get tested, but better that than bashing away on the job without knowing.

F